Minimal gestures, bodily functions, dogs, dances, running, counting and other repetitive acts are woven through Creed's affectionate and sometimes all too human art.
Trudging through "Creed" in reading glasses and a tilted pork pie hat, Stallone infuses his character with an aura of wisdom, the kind exuded by a man who has often learned things the hard way.
This is a mix of textual scholarship, early Christian history and theological reflection that should prove invigorating not only to the devout but also to the many Christians who, as Professor Johnson realizes, either sleepwalk their way through the creed when it is recited in their churches or puzzle over it or even privately edit out the parts that seem discomforting.
And being impartial to those who are a part of you — through blood or creed or association or profession (think of the thin blue line) — is not to be virtuous, but to be ungrateful and disloyal, more concerned with hewing to some abstract principle of respect for all than with discharging the obligations that come along with your most intimate relations.
Commitment to this belief has moved us inexorably toward change in a positive direction, according to Brooks, and failure to transmit this creed through our rituals--like standing and singing the National Anthem--will compromise our sense of solidarity at a time when we desperately need to keep in mind that "we are all in this together".
On one hand he is viewed as challenging notions of black inferiority through his 'money is power' creed; on the other he is viewed as perpetuating a brand of black masculinity that leads to the demonisation of the wider black community. .
No matter what side of the tracks you were born on, what kind of childhood you had, what current challenges you're slogging through, or what race, color, creed, or age you are, when you create the right inner conditions, the great purpose for which you were born must emerge.
"While I am opposed to all orthodox creeds," he declares through the static, "I have a creed myself; and my creed is this: Happiness is the only good.
Through Aug. 26 The art dealers' creed is partly financial, partly educational.
Economics is less a slavish creed than a prism through which to understand the world.
MARTIN CREED, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, 436 West 15th Street, (212) 627-5258 (through Feb. 12).
